Hair

Hair

Word from Wiese

28 August 2024

Dear Friends in Faith,

After worship a few weeks ago, I greeted the incomparable Betty Schmidt.  After bravely enduring some cancer treatments, Betty’s hair was growing back wonderfully.   She looked beautiful and I told her so.   And then I added, “Betty, you’re styling even more hair than I am!”   Without missing a beat, Betty replied, “Well, Pastor, that’s a pretty low bar.”

Touche!

Maybe it was Betty’s friend, Shelly Jones, who quipped she might not believe I really ever had more hair than I currently sport.  Someone else suggested, while laughing, that I use an upcoming WFW for show a picture of “back in the day” to actually prove my case.   So, first, see this picture of LuAnne and me more than 35 years ago when both our “doos” were more prolific.  And going way back, an old school photo from the 70s.

This fun exchange with Betty reminds me of Scripture’s intriguing promise that God cares about us so much, that “even the hairs of your head are all numbered. (So) do not be afraid.”  Luke 12.7

I laugh thinking that sea otters might take God a few extra milliseconds to count daily.   Their fur contains between 600,000 to 1,000,000 hair follicles per square inch, the most luxurious for any animal, needing to keep warm in the cold ocean waters.  So, I’m a “time-saver” for the Lord with my human 100-200 hairs per square inch and fewer square inches each year!

It’s true.   Yes, we might comb a little bit less hair each year, but God faithfully clothes and covers us each day.   Yes, we might be able to recall fewer memories each year—I contend that all the Mountain Dew I drank in college and seminary killed a swath of memory cells—but God never forgets us.  Yes, we might pull a few more muscles than back in the glory days but God is always able to stretch his grace and loving arms around us no matter our condition.

Counting in God to do the counting,

Pastor Fritz

Questions for Reflection:

1. What do you have less of, or can’t do quite as easily, as you get older?
2. How does the aging process make you feel?
3. When you read Jesus’ promise that God cares for you so well that God knows even the number of hairs on your head, how does that make you feel?
4. How do feel when you hear Jesus’ command attached to that hair comment, that we are not to worry or be afraid?

Let us pray: 

Dear Lord, thanks for your promise that you watch us so carefully that you know even about our hair.  Whether our hair is short or long, growing or receding, colored or gray, or sparse or prolific, we thank you for giving it to us.  And even more, we thank you for your encouragement to never be afraid, because you care for us so deeply.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.